


Big Family Tree

by anactualforrealadult



Series: Zuko the single dad wonder [7]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Found Family, Iroh (Avatar) is a Good Uncle, It's jsut fluff your honor, Izumi isn't sure how being gay works, Izumi learns about her extended family tree, Izumi's adopted too but she doesn't need to know that, Just one big happy family, Multi, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Toph adopted her kids and you can fight me on that too, Zuko being a dad!, and her gay bakoda grandpas, azula gets to be redeemed but don't ask me how im not prepared to answer such questions, but she loves her lesbian aunts, full fat fluff, single dad Zuko, theres some very vague lilo and stitch plagiarism but yall can fight me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:02:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26058412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anactualforrealadult/pseuds/anactualforrealadult
Summary: Izumi isn't quite sure how all these people are actually related to her.  She's never had to think too hard about it, she is a but a smol child.  Zuko tries to help make sense of things.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Bato/Hakoda (Avatar), Ikem/Ursa (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Toph/doing what she wants, Zuko/Friendship
Series: Zuko the single dad wonder [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1786198
Comments: 12
Kudos: 159





	Big Family Tree

By all accounts, it didn’t make any sense.

Izumi’s teacher had asked everyone to make a family tree to present to the class by the end of the week. They only had to go as far back as their grandparents, but she was even finding that difficult in her eight year old mind. Her mini desk in her dad’s office was covered with papers from her multiple attempts to make sense of her family line. At this point, the only thing she was sure of was that her dad was her dad.

She had started with her grandparents, running into trouble immediately. Her Grandpa Iroh was obviously her grandfather, but her dad only ever called him Uncle? But Grandpa only ever called Dad “Son”, and introduced him to people as his son, and referred to Izumi as his granddaughter. And all her aunts and uncles also called him Uncle. 

Her other grandparents complicated things as well. Her Grandma Ursa was Dad’s mom, she knew that for sure because he called her Mom and told people he was her son, but Grandpa Ikem might not be Dad’s dad because he only ever called Grandpa by his first name. Plus, Grandpa only referred to Dad as Grandma’s son when people asked. On top of all this, she knew that Auntie Kiyi was Grandma and Grandpa’s daughter, and Dad’s sister. But how was she his sister if Grandpa wasn’t Dad’s dad? Her confusion only increased when she realized that her grandparents were only on her dad’s side of the family, because she didn’t have a mom, and thus no grandparents on that side.

And then she remembered her Grandpas Hakoda and Bato! How did they factor in? Dad never called them anything but their names, but Izumi had always been told that they were her grandparents too. They were married to each other somehow (people outside her family seemed to care more about this point than the ones in her family), but she knew that two dads can’t have kids, so who’s dads were they? She was pretty sure not all of her aunts and uncles called either of them “dad” either. In fact, she was pretty sure that Grandpa Hakoda was the only one some people called “dad”. No one called Grandpa Bato “dad”. Why?!

Linking together her aunts and uncles didn’t make things any clearer. Aunt Katara was Uncle Sokka’s sister, but only Dad ever called Aunt Toph and Aunt Azula his sisters. Was Aunt Katara not his sister? Was Uncle Aang or Aunt Suki her dad’s siblings? She was pretty sure Uncle Aang had mentioned that he was related to Dad somehow before, but she couldn’t remember how. Aunt Suki always said that Aunt Tylee was one of her sisters, but none of Uncle Sokka and Aunt Suki’s kids called Aunt Tylee or Aunt Mai their aunt. And were those aunts sisters, or were they married? They had told Izumi that they grew up together with Aunt Azula and Dad, but sometimes she saw them kiss too. Do people kiss their sisters? She didn’t think so. And why didn’t Auntie Kiyi grow up with all of them too?

“Is everything ok over there? I think your ears are steaming a little bit from your brain working too hard.” Izumi looked up quickly at the sound of her Dad’s voice. He was taking a break from his own work to stretch, and was walking over to her side of the room. She had a very haphazard tree made out that took a couple papers attached together, and she quickly cleared off her previous attempts from the desk so that she could show her dad her current progress without distraction.

“I’m trying to make a family tree for my history class, but our family just doesn’t make any sense!” She handed the papers to her father for him to study. He appeared confused at first, then a smile slowly grew on his face as he kept reading. To her own confusion, he started laughing, and gave her a kiss on the head.

“Considering you are definitely missing some good chunks of information, this isn’t bad! In fact…I love it.” Her dad pulled a chair over to her desk and pulled her to his side with one arm.

“But it doesn’t make any sense!” She whined desperately.

“No, but family is complicated sometimes, and I like it that way.” He wasn’t laughing any more, but he was still looking at the tree like it was a precious treasure.

“So should I just present this in class? Even though it doesn’t really make any sense?”

“Oh, Agni no, I don’t think this is going to work for the purpose of your class, there’s no way they could decipher this.”

Izumi huffed. “Well I have to present _something_.”

Her dad pulled out another sheet of paper. “I know you like doing things yourself, but I think I’m going to have to help you with this one.” He started with the grandparent line of her tree, and added a couple different kind of lines.

“Your Grandpa Iroh is my uncle, my father’s brother.” He started, writing some names. “My father’s name was Ozai, and he was a bastard. Don’t say that in class, but he was. He was married to your Grandma Ursa, and they had me and Aunt Azula.” There were now some vertical lines from the names “Ozai” and “Ursa”. After a moment, he added a vertical line under Iroh’s name, and wrote “Lu Ten”. She recognized the name from their trips to the family shrine.

“But why do I call Iroh ‘Grandpa’ then?” She queried. 

“Because he has been more of a father than my real one ever was. When you were born, he asked if it was ok for you to call him Grandpa.” Her dad was now adding some lines near Grandma Ursa, making a small x through the line between her and Ozai, and creating a new one to the name “Ikem”.

“Ozai was a very bad husband, and my mom had to leave to be safe when I was a kid.” Izumi had a feeling there was more to the story than that, but more worried about keeping up with the tree. “After she left, she met Grandpa Ikem, and they got married and had Auntie Kiyi. This made Ikem my step-father, and Kiyi my half-sister, because we share one parent. I don’t call Ikem my father or step-father, but only because I didn’t meet him until I was a grownup, so we aren’t as close as I am with my mom or Uncle. But he’s still your grandpa because he’s married to my mom.”

He added one vertical line to his own name and wrote “Izumi”. Then, connected a line to Kiyi with her husband’s name, and one line down from them with a question mark. Izumi knew they wouldn’t be able to fill that one in for a few more weeks. 

“And that’s it! That’s our family tree.” Izumi furrowed her brow at her father’s declaration. 

“That’s way too small, it’s missing half the people in our family!”

“You’re right. This is the family tree of people who are related to you by blood or marriage. Everyone else in our family isn’t actually related to us.”

“WHAT?!” That couldn’t be right. That would mean that she only had two real aunts, one uncle, and half a cousin!

“I know it’s a shock, but it’s true.” Her dad pulled out another sheet of paper, and started a new family tree. He added quite a few lines before explaining.

“Uncle Sokka and Aunt Katara are brother and sister. Their dad is Hakoda, and their mom was named Kya. She died when they were little, and then Hakoda married Bato a long time later. I met all of them during the war, and we became very close friends, that’s why you call them by family names. They wanted me to be part of their family too, even if we weren’t blood related.” He added lines for spouses and children. “We met Aunt Suki and Uncle Aang during the war too, and then they married Uncle Sokka and Aunt Katara. So all their kids are actually related to them by blood.”

This made Izumi a little sad. She was always told that the other kids were her cousins, but it turns out they were only each other’s cousins. Her dad must have noticed her expression, and bumped her elbow affectionately.

“They may not be related by blood, but they are still your family. Everyone insisted that they would be your aunts and uncles when you were born, they _wanted_ you to be part of the family.” A smile came back to her face, and she was rewarded with a kiss on the temple. “Grandpa Hakoda took me ice dodging after the war, which makes me family in the eyes of the tribe. I bet if you ask nicely, Uncle Sokka will teach you how to do it when you are old enough.” He winked with a smile.

There were still some people missing, she realized after recovering from the excitement of possible ice dodging. “What about Aunt Toph? And Aunt Tylee and Aunt Mai?”

Her dad added their names to the bottom of the sheet, not connected to anyone else. “Aunt Toph was another friend we made during the war. She didn’t have any brothers of sisters of her own, so she decided that I was going to be her brother. That’s why I call her my sister too. She even lived here in the palace for a few years after the end of the war, and we became even closer.” Two vertical lines were added for Lin and Suyin. “Technically, you could say that her daughters have the closest claim to being your full cousins.” He added with a shrug. Then, he added a line connecting Tylee and Mai. 

“Tylee and Mai have been friends with Aunt Azula since we were little, they all went to school together. They kind of ended up becoming my friends too as a result. When they became grownups, they decided to get married.”

“Why does Aunt Suki called Aunt Tylee her sister then?”

“Because they were both Kyoshi warriors. They all call each other ‘sister’ over there. And they can still call each other that now, even though they are only honorary members now.” 

Izumi nodded. She remembered her dad explaining that official Kyoshi warriors could only be unmarried women, but remained as honorary reserve members the rest of their life. 

The family connections appeared clearer now, but she wasn’t sure she liked it. Even though it didn’t make any sense, she kind of liked the original family tree she liked better. Her father seemed to sense her thoughts, because he pulled out one more sheet of paper.

“I have an idea for one more family tree, I think you’ll like it…”

When he finished, they agreed that Izumi could use her official family tree and the last family tree (the best one in Izumi’s opinion) for her school presentation.

\---------------------------

Izumi was practically vibrating in her seat waiting for her turn to present. She never felt nervous about public speaking, she was just plain excited. Her teacher had invited parents to attend if they wanted, and her father looked like a regular dad mixed in with the other families without his formal robes. He was beaming when her turn finally came and she walked to the front of the class.

“This is my official family tree. My blood grandparents are Ozai and Ursa, and they had my dad and my Aunt Azula. But dad says that Ozai was a bast-“

“A _bad_ man.” Her father quickly supplied with a blush before she could finish, to the giggles of some of the adults.

“Right, a bad man, so we don’t actually call Ozai my grandpa. My grandma got married again to my Grandpa Ikem, and they had my Aunt Kiyi. Aunt Kiyi got married to my Uncle Aoke, but we don’t know the name of their baby because they aren’t born yet.” She pointed to the last name on the top tier of the paper. “My dad is really, really close to his Uncle Iroh, and says he’s like my dad’s _real_ dad, so I call him my Grandpa too. Everyone else we know calls him Uncle because he likes that.” She moved her finger to cover the last couple names. 

“Grandpa Iroh had a son named Lu Ten, but he died a long, long time ago, and now we visit his ashes at the family shrine. Oh, and then my dad had me!” She smiled out at the audience, who started to politely clap.

“Wait! I have more!” Izumi put down her first paper, revealing her second one. This one had three simple tiers, with only two vertical lines dividing the generations, and with all the names bunched together on each tier. “Dad calls this our Big Family tree. It has all the people that are like family to us, even if they aren’t blood family. I have some more grandparents, a whole ton of aunts and uncles, and sooo many cousins! We all love each other very much, and we take care of each other.” A few parents awwed in the audience, and her dad was even looked a little bit teary. She gave a small bow, signifying that she was actually finished this time.

“Thank you, Izumi, that was a very creative presentation!” Her teacher complimented after people finished clapping. “Does anyone have any questions for her?” After taking a few questions from her classmates, Izumi saw her dad shyly put up his hand with a smile.

“Daaad,” She rolled her eyes. “You helped me make this, you shouldn’t have any questions!”

“Well it’s not actually a question, it’s just that I realized something.” He said sheepishly. “We technically should have added Uncle Aang to our official family tree.”

“But you said Uncle Aang isn’t blood family?” Izumi questioned.

“Well, sort of. Uncle Aang was Avatar Roku in his last life. Avatar Roku was my mother’s grandfather, your great-great grandfather.” Izumi’s eyes widened in surprise. “Technically, that means that Uncle Aang is also your great-great grandfather.”

“WHAT.”

*Years Later*

“I can’t decide if our marriage is going to make our family tree more or less complicated.”

It was the night following her engagement celebration, and Izumi lay in bed with her future husband, simply enjoying each other’s company. She was fighting a losing battle with sleep, and she could tell he was too. It had been a long day of revelry and placating angry officials who didn’t like that the princess was marrying a water tribe “peasant”. Never mind that said “peasant” was the son of the Southern Water Tribe Chief, a man who happened to be a war hero and one of the Fire Lord’s closest friends. Or that the man she was marrying was currently the Tribe’s ambassador to the Fire Nation and had been courting her for the last year (not that they had told anyone outside their family, but by all accounts, the officials _technically_ could have stated their displeasure a long time ago).

“How so?” She heard Kaskae mumble against her neck.

“Well,” She started. “Now our family trees will actually be connected not just through friendship, but through blood and marriage too.” She could feel him smile against her skin.

“That doesn’t sound complicated. That sounds nice.”

“Yeah, but going from the highly complicated family tree I made when I was eight, I’m technically marrying my cousin.”

Kaskae moved quickly to frantically look her in the eye. “Do me a favor and never say that again.” He whispered. “That is absolutely the last thing I want to be thinking about for the rest of my life.”

Izumi laughed and gave him a soft peck. “I’ll do my best. I think it would traumatize our children.” Kaskae rolled his eyes and went back to his original position. 

Izumi cuddled closer to him, ready to let sleep finally take her. In the last moments before she let the day end, she thought about the family trees she had made so many years ago. The official tree was long gone, not kept around after her presentation. But the other two, the messy one she made and the simplistic Big Family tree, had both gotten framed and hung in her father’s office. He said it always made his day better, having a physical reminder of everyone he loved and how much they loved him. She couldn’t wait for the day she could show it to her own children, teaching them all about the large and complicated family they were a part of. They had made it themselves, not using conventional rules. It was weird and little messy, but it was good. 

Yeah, it was good.


End file.
